WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States has certified that the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have made serious steps to ensure that civilians in Yemen are not harmed by their military operations in the country, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said on Wednesday.

"I certified to Congress yesterday that the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure resulting from military operations of these governments," Pompeo said in a statement.

Pompeo's decision to issue the certification ensures that the United States can continue to provide support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Had Pompeo chosen not to issue the certification, the newly passed legislation would have prevented US forces from continuing to refuel Saudi and UAE jets involved in military operations in Yemen.

Pompeo also underscored the need to provide unimpeded access to humanitarian aid workers in Yemen and to take actions to mitigate the impact of the conflict on civilians.

Yemen is engulfed in an armed conflict between the government headed by Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah. The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.

Hello,
!

We are committed to protecting your personal information and we have updated our Privacy Policy to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new EU regulation that went into effect on May 25, 2018.

Please review our Privacy Policy. It contains details about the types of data we collect, how we use it, and your data protection rights.

Since you already shared your personal data with us when you created your personal account, to continue using it, please check the box below:

I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of creating a personal account on this site, in compliance with the Privacy Policy.

If you do not want us to continue processing your data, please click here to delete your account.

promotes the use of narcotic / psychotropic substances, provides information on their production and use;

contains links to viruses and malicious software;

is part of an organized action involving large volumes of comments with identical or similar content ("flash mob");

“floods” the discussion thread with a large number of incoherent or irrelevant messages;

violates etiquette, exhibiting any form of aggressive, humiliating or abusive behavior ("trolling");

doesn’t follow standard rules of the English language, for example, is typed fully or mostly in capital letters or isn’t broken down into sentences.

The administration has the right to block a user’s access to the page or delete a user’s account without notice if the user is in violation of these rules or if behavior indicating said violation is detected.